People News

Ruth Wright Hayre, who 32 years ago became the first black
high-school principal in Philadelphia, wants to ignite the same
pioneering spirit in some of the youngest Philadelphians.

Ms. Hayre has offered to pay for the college education of 119
elementary students from two schools in low-income neighborhoods of the
city. She announced the creation of her scholarship fund to a delighted
audience of potential recipients and their parents attending 6th-grade
graduation ceremonies at the Richard R. Wright and Kenderton elementary
schools in north Philadelphia.

Temple University will manage the program, entitled "Tell Them We
Are Rising.'' The title comes from the response of Ms. Hayre's
grandfather, Richard R. Wright, to a question about the condition of
former slaves in the post-Civil War era.

Ms. Hayre was named principal of William Penn High School in
1956.

Pittsburgh school officials have tapped Bennie J. Swans Jr., the
Philadelphia expert on youth gangs, to help them stop gangs from taking
root in their schools.

Mr. Swans, who founded an organization called Crisis Intervention
Network Inc. to fight violence among Philadelphia gang members,
presented a day of workshops last month to school and community
leaders.

The purpose of the workshops, school officials said, is to teach
local leaders how to keep gangs from flourishing in Pittsburgh as they
have in recent years in other major cities.

Gene Arline, the Florida teacher with tuberculosis whose fight to
regain her job resulted in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling, has
been ordered reinstated with full back pay by a federal district
judge.

U.S. District Judge John Moore ruled in July that the Nassau County
school board must restore Ms. Arline to her job as a 3rd-grade teacher
and give her approximately $100,000 in back pay. The board fired her in
1979 after she suffered a relapse of the contagious disease, on the
grounds that she posed a health risk to students.

In 1987, the Supreme Court ruled that Ms. Arline's disease was a
disability, and that she was protected against discrimination on the
basis of handicap by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

Eugene M. Lang, the New York philanthropist, businessman, and founder
of the "I Have a Dream'' program, has been awarded the James L. Fisher
Distinguished Service to Education Award by the Council for Advancement
and Support of Education.

Mr. Lang, president of the REFAC Technology Development Corporation,
created the "I Have a Dream'' concept in 1986 with a promise he made to
6th-grade students at New York City's P.S. 121. During a graduation
speech at the school he had attended as a boy, Mr. Lang offered to
cover the college costs of every member of the class who finished high
school.

Mr. Lang also has served as chairman of the board of Swarthmore
College, his alma mater, and as a trustee of the New School of Social
Research.

A California developer's plans to open a school run by the nationally
known educator Marva Collins have fallen through. But the principles
she developed at her Westside Preparatory School in Chicago will
nevertheless be put into practice in Los Angeles this fall.

The developer, who had hoped to build a school for Ms. Collins in
Compton, Calif., said in July that he had failed to get sufficient
financial support in the community for the idea.

Instead, a separate group in Los Angeles is planning a new school
that will seek to duplicate Westside, according to Wanda D. Clemmons,
the group's leader. The school also will bear Ms. Collins's name.

Gov. Ray Mabus of Mississippi has been elected chairman of the
15-state Southern Regional Education Board.

Governor Mabus, at 39 the nation's youngest governor, has
established a reputation as an education leader during his first months
in office. Earlier this year, he won the legislature's approval for a
substantial pay raise for teachers.

Gerald Hoeltzel has been appointed state superintendent of Oklahoma
schools by Gov. Henry Bellmon. Mr. Hoeltzel, 54, has been
superintendent of the Watonga Public Schools since 1982.

Mr. Hoeltzel will fill the two years remaining in the term of John
M. Folks, who resigned July 1 to become superintendent of the Midwest
City-Del City school district. Mr. Hoeltzel plans to seek election to a
full four-year term in 1990.

Mr. Bellmon also appointed Sandra Garrett, an administrator in the
state education department, to serve in his Cabinet as secretary of
education. Ms. Garrett replaces Smith Holt, who is returning to
Oklahoma State University as dean of the college of arts and
sciences.

The Maryland State Board of Education has chosen Joseph L. Shilling,
50, to succeed David W. Hornbeck as state school superintendent.

Mr. Shilling, who has spent his entire career working in Maryland
schools, was the unanimous choice of the board from among 12
candidates. In fact, none of the other candidates was even interviewed
for the job--an omission that angered Gov. William D. Schaefer. The
Governor said through a spokesman that the procedure was "humiliating''
for him because he had encouraged others to apply.

Mr. Shilling was deputy superintendent under Mr. Hornbeck for eight
years before leaving in 1985 to head a consortium seeking to improve
education on the state's rural Eastern Shore.

Mr. Hornbeck left the superintendency after 12 years to join a
Washington law firm. He also will teach at Johns Hopkins University in
Baltimore.

Richard C. Hunter, former superintendent of schools in Dayton, Ohio,
and Richmond, Va., will become superintendent of Baltimore Public
Schools this month.

Since resigning the Dayton post in 1985, Mr. Hunter has been a
professor of education at the University of North Carolina in Chapel
Hill. His three-year contract in Baltimore provides a $125,000 annual
salary.

Robert J. Ferrera has been chosen as superintendent of the Minneapolis
school system. The post had been vacated by Richard R. Green, who was
named chancellor of the New York City public schools earlier this
year.

Mr. Ferrera has been superintendent of the Grand Rapids, Mich.,
public schools for the past four years. Prior to that, he held a
similar post in Lawndale, Calif. His new three-year contract, which
began Aug. 1, carries an $89,500 annual salary.

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